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PL3233 > 4. STM/WM > Flashcards

4. STM/WM Flashcards

1
Q

What are the 2 different kinds of memory?

A

STM and LTM

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2
Q

What are the features of STM?

A

Memory of a short period over a few seconds
Limited storage
Consists of working memory

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3
Q

What is working memory?

A

A system that combines processing (eg. what will I write next?) with short-term storage (eg. what have I just written?) [PROCESSING + STM]

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4
Q

What is LTM?

A

Memory over periods of time ranging between several seconds and a lifetime

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5
Q

How do we measure the capacity of STM? What is memory span?

A

Present participants with random sequence of digits or letters. After that they repeat the items back in the same order. Memory span – the longest sequence of items recalled accurately at least 50% of the time.

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6
Q

How does chunking work?

A

integrated pieces of information

personal experience determine what forms a chunk. Assess relevant info in LTM before processing in STM.

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7
Q

What is the estimated capacity of STM?

A

(7 plus minus 2) chunks

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8
Q

Which is larger? Digit span or letter span?

A

Digit span

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9
Q

Which factor affects the number of chunks that can be stored in STM?

A

length of chunks (longer words -> less number of chunks)

time taken to pronounce each word/chunk – explains cultural differences in digit span

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10
Q

What is the counterargument against the 7+-2 estimated capacity of STM? Which task is used instead?

A

The capacity of STM is exaggerated. People may engage in rehearsal to enhance recall.
Running memory task - present a series of digits that end at an unpredictable point. Participants had to recall the items from the end of the list.
Capacity of STM after eliminating the above factors is around 3-4 chunks.

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11
Q

What is the recency effect?

A

the finding that the last few items in a list are usually much better remembered in immediately recall than those from the middle of the list. These items are especially vulnerable to interference and forgetting. Counting backwards for 10s after presentation of words before recall, reduces memory performance for the last 2-3 items.

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12
Q

What is the recency effect for patients with amnesia (impaired LTM but intact STM)

A

Same as that of healthy individuals because of intact STM.

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13
Q

How are span measures better than free recall tasks in measuring the capacity of STM?

A

Span measures more accurate. In free recall task, participants can use various strategies to maximise the total number of items recalled, including some from LTM, thus there is less emphasis on using total capacity of STM.

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14
Q

What are the 2 hypothesis about source of rapid forgetting?

A

1) decay - due to physiological processes over time

2) interference - proactive and retroactive.

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15
Q

What is the Peterson & peterson task?

A

Subjects learned a 3-letter stimulus (trigrams, e.g., TGH), while counting backwards by 3. After just 18 seconds (retention interval), the ability to remember the 3-letter stimulus dropped to about 10%.

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16
Q

Is the decay or intereference hypothesis for forgetting more well supported?

A

Interference hypothesis. On the Peterson-Peterson task, Minimal forgetting on first trial, with forgetting increasing over the next 3-4 trials. Suggest that forgetting was due to interference from previous letter sequences. (proactive interference - Information before interferes with information after.) To reduce interference, different words was presented on each trial and tested memory only for order information. There was little forgetting even over 96s. Suggest that forgetting in STM is due to interference rather than decay.

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17
Q

What are the 2 differences between STM & LTM?

A

1) differences in capacity (limited vs unlimited)

2) differences in duration (few seconds vs few decades)

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18
Q

What are the 3 processes involved in memory?

A

Encoding - learning
Storage - storing material in memory system
Retrieval - extracting information that has been stored.

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19
Q

What are 3 types of tasks used to measure memory?

A

1) recognition tasks - learn a list of words. discriminate between old and new items.
2) cued recall - cat-plane. cat-?
3) serial and free recall - learn a list of words. serial: recall in specific order. free: recall in any order

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20
Q

What are the 3 stores in Atkinson & Shiffrin’s Multistore Model?

A

Sensory store → ST store → LT store

attention; rehearsal (processes)

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21
Q

Describe the features of sensory stores. (4)

A
  • An exact copy of the information from the environment is stored for a brief duration.
  • Modality-specific: separate stores for each modality (visual, auditory, tactile, etc.)
  • short-lived; information decays rapidly.
  • with attention, some information in transferred to STM store
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22
Q

What has been argued about the capacity of sensory stores? (Sperling)

A

More is seen than can actually be reported, because sensory visual information fades away before you have time to report everything.
Sperling’s Partial report technique - tone and row association. participants were able to recall a lot more information.

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23
Q

Visual sensory memory takes about how long to decay?

A

About 500 ms

24
Q

What are visual sensory memory and auditory sensory memory known as? Which is stored longer?

A

Iconic memory; Echoic memory
Echoic memory is stored longer, and decays after about 2s. consistent with the fact that different sensory modalities have different systems.

25
Q

How does research on brain-damaged patients support the notion that the 3 types of sensory store are distinct?

A

Double-dissociation
- some patients have intact STM, but impaired LTM (retrograde amnesia)
- some patients have intact LTM, but impaired STM (anterograde amnesia)
Patient K.F, has no problem with long-term learning and recall, but digit span is greatly impaired. (almost no STM)

26
Q

What are the limitations of the multistore model? (4)

A

1) conception of STM and LTM are oversimplified. Baddeley and Hitch suggested that concept of STM should be replaced with WM, a system that combines processing and STM functions.
2) there are several different LTM systems! Not just 1!
3) information processed in STM must have already accessed LTM. Order is wrong. (chunking)
4) role of rehearsal - rehearsal is not actually involved in establishing most of our LTM.

27
Q

Which model is an alternative to the multi-store approach? What is the difference between both approaches?

A

unitary store approach.
Multistore approach emphasizes differences between STM and LTM. Unitary store approach emphasizes similarities between STM and LTM.

28
Q

What is the basic argument of the unitary store approach?

A

STM is simply that fraction of LTM activated at any given moment. STM and LTM are closely connected.
But this cannot account for double dissociation. Cannot explain why some patients have intact STM but impaired LTM.

29
Q

What evidence supports the unitary store model that processing within STM is heavily influenced by information from LTM?

A

Evidence that semantic information (meaning) from LTM affects processing in STM. Similar sounding words & pseudowords were presented aurally, followed by serial recall. If participants only processed sounds and not meanings of stimuli in STM, brain activity should be similar for words and pseudowords. But there was much more brain activity for words than pseudowords. Suggests that semantic information from LTM was processed.

30
Q

What are the 4 components of the working memory model?

A

1) Central executive
2) Phonological loop
3) Visuo-spatial sketchpad
4) Episodic buffer

31
Q

Describe the central executive in the working memory model. (3)

A
  • Acts as attentional controller; deploys attention resources
  • “Boss” of the working memory system and controls what happens within the other components
  • Can process information from any sensory modality (eg. visual, auditory) but has no storage capacity.
32
Q

Describe the phonological loop in the working memory model.

A

Involved in processing and brief storage of phonological speech-based information. (verbal processing)

33
Q

Describe the visuo-spatial sketchpad in the working memory model.

A

Involved in the processing and brief storage of visual and spatial information. (visual and spatial processing)

34
Q

Describe the episodic buffer in the working memory model.

A

Storage system that can hold information from the phonological loop, visuospatial sketchpad, and long-term memory. Combines and integrates information but we still don’t have a detailed account of how it works. Close link between episodic buffer & central executive

35
Q

What are the 2 key assumptions of the working memory model?

A

1) Assume that all 4 components of working memory have limited capacity.
2) Assumed that each component can function fairly independently of the others.

36
Q

How does the above assumptions help us predict whether 2 tasks can be performed successfully at the same time?

A

If 2 tasks use the same component, they can’t be performed successfully together because capacity will be exceeded. If 2 tasks involve different components, it should be possible to perform them as well together or separately.

37
Q

Describe an empirical evidence to support the different components of WM.

A

Dual-task paradigm (Chess)
Primary task: chess
Secondary task:
- Repetitive tapping (control)
- Random number generation (central executive)
requires a lot of attention
- Pressing keys on keypad in clockwise manner (visuo-spatial sketchpad)
- Articulatory suppression (see-saw): Phonological loop

38
Q

What were the findings of the chess dual-task paradigm?

A

Quality of chess moves selected was reduced when the secondary task involved the central executive or visuospatial sketchpad.
Rapid word repetition didn’t reduce quality of chess moves, suggesting that phonological loop was not involved in selecting chess moves.
The effects were similar for both stronger and weaker players. This suggests both groups use the working memory system similarly when choosing moves.

39
Q

What is the phonological similarity effect in the phonological loop?

A

task - visually present a series of words and request recall in the order of presentation
Recall performance is worse when the words are phonologically similar (ie. sound similar)
Participants used speech-based rehearsal processes within the phonological loop.

40
Q

What is the word length effect in the phonological loop?

A

Word span (number of words recalled immediately in the correct order) is greater for short words than for long ones. Word span is greater when pronunciation time is short. Suggests that capacity of the phonological loop is limited in terms of temporal duration.

41
Q

Explain one usefulness of the phonological loop.

A

Useful when learning new words in a foreign language, but not for native vocabulary. An efficient phonological loop is more important when reading in a foreign language because of the greater difficulty in working out how to pronounce the words.

42
Q

Visual processing involves ____. Spatial processing involves ____.

A

what; where

they involve different systems.

43
Q

What is the capacity of the visuo-spatial sketchpad?

A

about 4 items

44
Q

How does evidence of blind people support the fact that visual and spatial processing in the visuo-spatial sketchpad are 2 separate systems?

A

blind people are generally good at using spatial information to move around despite not being able to engage in visual processing. role of hippocampus in spatial processing; hippocampus is larger in blind people. visual and spatial processing involve different brain regions.

45
Q

Visual and spatial processing involve different brain regions. How are they different?

A

Visual - more activity in occipital and temporal lobes (left hemisphere)
Spatial - more activity in parietal lobes (right hemisphere)

46
Q

What is the main gender difference concerning spatial processing?

A

Males end to outperform females. Can be attributed to video gaming, but they have done so prior to the digital age. Probably evolutionary roots.

47
Q

What processes is the central executive involved in?

A

Planning and organisation (but doesn’t store information)

Inhibitory processes

48
Q

Which brain area is important for the central executive?

A

Dorsolateral prefrontal cortex

frontal lobes - Widespread brain damage to frontal lobes typically impairs all central executive functions.

49
Q

What are the 3 major executive processes?

A

1) Task setting - Involves simple planning (eg. starting to learn to drive a car). Left lateral frontal region.
2) Monitoring - Involves checking that the current task is being performed adequately. Right lateral frontal region.
3) Energization - Involves sustained attention or concentration. Superior medial region.

50
Q

What are the 2 ways we can use to assess working memory capacity?

A

1) reading span: read sentences for comprehension (processing task) and then recall the final word of each sentence (storage task). Large working memory capacity - comprehension (processing) will take up a smaller proportion of the total capacity. Hence, they have more capacity available for storage.
2) operation span: similar task just that sentence is replaced with arithmetic sums.

51
Q

What is the usefulness of good working memory capacity? (3)

A

1) Superior language comprehension skills
2) Higher intelligence (esp fluid intelligence)
3) Attentional control –> less susceptible to distraction. more flexible allocation of attention.

52
Q

Provide 2 evidences of the relationship between high working memory capacity and distractibility.

A

1) Individuals with high working memory capacity detected targets faster than low capacity individuals only when distractors were present in a visual search task
2) On sustained attention task, people occasionally have slow reaction times due to lapses of attention. Those of high wm capacity had significantly fewer lapses of attention.

53
Q

____ and _____ were both moderately strongly associated with WM capacity

A

Attentional control; LTM

Measures of WM capacity involve retrieval of information from LTM

54
Q

High WM capacity is associated with: (3)

A

higher fluid intelligence, better attentional control, superior LTM

55
Q

What does attentional control comprise of? (3)

A

Inhibiting processing of distractors
Sustaining attention on current task
Focusing on task-relevant stimuli

56
Q

List the stages of memory (3)

A

Encoding: Processes involved in learning something.
Storage: Processes involved in storing material in the memory system
Retrieval: Processes involved in extracting information that has been stored.

PL3233 (10 decks)

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